My name is Ryan Pyle. I am a Canadian born freelance photographer documenting China. I am based in Shanghai, China. I work for leading Editorial clients around the world. I have recently taking up motorcycle adventure riding. You can follow me on Facebook, Twitter as well as www.ryanpyle.com & www.mkride.com.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

A friend of mine recently introduced a series of short movies on YouTube that are pretty hilarious.

I wanted to share them with you all. The person uploading the video is Mr. Trotty57. Not sure if this person is also the creator or not. There are several hilarious videos depicting classic relationships between editors and photographers and writers. If you are in the industry, it should provide a giggle.

Monday, October 26, 2009

I'm very pleased to say that my Hakka Apartment feature from Fujian, China got a nice SPREAD in the online magazine GLOBAL POST.

Global post seem to be making strides at becoming a formidable force in online news. They have a strong collection of contributors, as well as a decent budget and a great group of editors.

This will hopefully help balance the landscape between print and online magazines and help offer up a new venue for writing and photography. Fingers crossed they keep it at. I would love to be able to blog about further posts.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

It would appear that Chinese tycoons and corrupt officials have hijacked the Chinese economy and manipulated it for their own ends, in a political-economic system that Mr. Wu Jinglian calls "crony capitalism".

Who is Mr. Wu, and why should we care?

Well, he is a 79 year old economist and has just been the subject of an excellent profile by David Barboza of the New York Times.

Mr. Wu, or "Market Wu" as he was known after advising Deng Xiaoping in the 1980s, has begun speaking out against China brand of Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics. While calling for an economic clean up, he has even gone so far as to push for a British-style democracy, advocating that political change in China is inevitable. And yes, Mr. Wu's sharp criticism has landed him in hot water with the current regime; so much so that he has been officially branded a SPY by Chinese state run media; although the actual authorities in China deny any investigations involving Mr. Wu.

Stories like this one, by David, offer an incredible and unique glimpse in to how China has progressed since 1979 and where China is headed. Mr. Wu clearly holds the keys to all the good economic gossip. Ten years ago, or even five years ago, men like Mr. Wu would have never spoken out for fear of retribution. But more and more Chinese folks with an insiders scoop or something unique to say seem to no longer be afraid of speaking their mind, or calling a spade a spade.

In Mr. Wu's case he is obviously in the twilight of his career and doesn't seem to fear anything; let alone retribution by the government. So what does this aging economic insider have to say about China? In a nutshell, that economic reforms in the early 1980s have been responsible for fueling growth and altering the course of an entire nation. But that rapid growth also opened the flood gates to official corruption. And that the government is prone to meddle in the market too often and this: widens the income gap, protects inefficient monopolies and as led to an air of cronyism between big business and politics.

Mr. Wu after being banished to the farms of Central China during the Cultural Revolution returned to reach the highest levels of influence, advising Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin on macro economics and how to clean up massive State Owned Enterprises. Having always been quick to strike, Mr. Wu isn't holding back any punches indicating that China must really being to change it's ways or the country's future is far from guaranteed - global stock markets take note. Mr. Wu sees a traditional battle between Maoists and Reformers in the current government tearing this country apart, with Maoists pushing for central planning and Reformers wanted to line their own pockets. After seeing so much change since 1979 you might expect Mr. Wu to be an optimist, but he is not; indicating that cronyism and corruption are undermining the future of China.

The original article by David Barboza of the New York Times can be found by following this LINK.

Let's seriously hope people people like Mr. Wu start popping out of the woodwork; their stories are profound, historically important and make for a great read.

Monday, October 19, 2009

With all the huff and puff surrounding the 60th Anniversary of the People's Republic of China a few weeks back it was easy to miss the breaking news that Chairman Mao's grandson, the 39 year old Mao Xinyu, became the youngest Major General in the People's Liberation Army (PLA) history in late September.

Although his promotion has not been officially announced by the PLA, it has appeared as a story in several state run newspapers and has set the blogging world alight in China. Why has their been so much interest online about this young Major General (See link to pictures)? According to bloggers it's because he was a mediocre student, comes across a bit unkept and is a rather large fellow - weighing in at around 220 pounds. Let's just say he doesn't really look field ready.

Laughing or not, being Chairman Mao's grandson in China is a big deal and the official media are much more respectful than folks online. But it appears that his promotion is part of a coming out party that may also include him leaving the military in the near future and getting more involved in politics, perhaps as a big city mayor or a provincial party secretary. I'm not sure if China is ready for another Mao in politics, but this is a story worth keeping an eye on in the coming years. It always boggles my mind how far underlings of famous leaders can get before people around them start to realize that they've fallen far from the papa-tree; but in this case that could be a very good thing as Chairman Mao's political and economic policies wreaked havoc on Chinese people from 1949 until his death in 1976,

Thursday, October 15, 2009

The world maybe suffering from economic turmoil, but that hasn't stopped boatloads, trainloads and busloads of people from showing up in Shanghai, China looking for work and a better life. The situation has gotten so intense that the Shanghai Population and Family Planning Commission (SPFPC) is looking for ways to better distribute the population density from the crowded city center out in the suburbs.

It turns out that there are roughly 18.88 million people in Shanghai. I say roughly because a) people are coming and going all the time, and b) the Chinese government, both local and national, love to round off numerical values to include as many 8's as possible; as 8 is a lucky number in China.

With almost 19 million people scrabbling around bustling Shanghai, the SPFPC are looking at ways to avoid overcrowding. About 1/2 of all the residents here live in the massive 600-square kilometer downtown area, and the rest live in various suburbs around the city.

It's important to remember that this overcrowding is mainly due to mass migration of people from other provinces to Shanghai, as people chase their middle class ambitions. By SPFPC numbers it looks like Shanghai is growing by around 300,000 or 400,000 people a year. No small number for a city rushing to build and develop infrastructure after almost starting from scratch twenty years ago.

Solutions are difficult to find, if China starts telling people that its biggest cities are off limits; or starts restricting movements there would be a huge backlash. The only real solution would be to encourage second tier cities to develop faster and become better places to live, with better economic opportunities; and that may actually happen as Shanghai gets too expensive and factories and offices such for cheaper wages and rents.

The above image is a crowded neighborhood in an older part of Shanghai; where migrants often first land in their bid to find work and start a new path.

Monday, October 12, 2009

I do my best to try and avoid producing corporate photography for Chinese companies. There are a lot of great China's companies out there doing some incredible work, producing wonderful products and doing so in a generally responsible way.

But often where the trouble begins is with day rates, fee's, expenses, and of course copywrite. Much of the trouble stems from the fact that the corporate photography industry is China is not very mature, another reason is that there is so much local competition that drives prices down. And a recent example infuriated me so much that it motivated me to blog.

I do a significant amount of work for Public Relations companies and their clients. And recently one of the top PR companies in Asia called me up and asked me to prepare a quote for a local Chinese client; early on they told me that the client didn't have too much money and was looking to keep the copywrite of the images, what a way to start negotiations!

First of all, I don't give up copywrite. Ever.

You can shoot corporate work for a corporate client and keep the copywrite; usually by offering them various licensing terms. That way if you take a killer image that the company wants to use for decades to come; it will generate a nice residual income for you, but alas I am in China and getting these messages across to clients can be difficult at best. My example continues.

So I wrote up a brief proposal indicating a fee for the work and clauses that allow me to keep the copywrite and another clause explaining the licensing fee. My proposal was rejected. Then I re-drafted the proposal indicating that I would keep the copywrite but they could use the images for a multiple year term, which was very generous on my part. But they wouldn't budge on the copywrite and apparently my day rates were also much much too high. Essentially, I walked away from the deal. The terms were too difficult and I felt although the project was interesting it had to be on my terms; and they weren't budge.

I just found out a few days ago that the client hired a local photographer/videographer for US$300 per day and he agreed to give up all copywrite to the corporation. I was essentially undercut, not a winning day for the corporate photography world. And at US$400 per day it's a virtual steel assuming the quality is at a high level, which is no guarantee in any part of the world.

Lessons learned are many. First is know your price, know what you will work for and what you won't work for. The jobs you want will eventually find you. Remember, most of your career will often be defined by the jobs you turn down, and not the jobs you take.

Friday, October 09, 2009

I'm writing to make you aware of some new work I've produced. The photos revolve around the Hakka Tulou houses in remote Fujian province. The story is a remarkable testament to how unique some parts of China still remain, and what wonderful treasures they posses. You may not remember what a Hakka Tulou is, but you'll remember them once you see the images. My goal was to not only capture the remarkable architecture but also the culture and the life of the people living there. Please follow the link below to view the images online.

A Brief Summary:In 2008 UNESCO granted the Tulou "Apartments" World Heritage Status; siting the buildings as exceptional examples of a building tradition and function exemplifying a particular type of communal living and defensive organization. The Fujian Tulou is "the most extraordinary type of Chinese rural dwellings" of the Hakka minority group and other people in the mountainous areas in southwestern Fujian, China. The Tulou is usually a large enclosed building, rectangular or circular in configuration, with a very thick weight supporting earth wall (up to 6 feet thick) and wooden skeletons, from three to five stories high, housing up to 80 families. These earth buildings usually have only one main gate, guarded by 4-5 inch thick wooden doors reinforced with an outer shell of iron plate. The top level of these earth buildings has gun holes for defense against bandits. They are a testament to the unique cultures that existed throughout China.

Monday, October 05, 2009

Once again the New York Times has given me a lovely opportunity to visit, along with Keith Bradsher, the SunTech offices and manufacturing center in Wuxi, China. Did I mention I'm the luckiest guy in the world and I love my job? I love factory visits and I love visiting successful Made IN China companies, like SunTech.

Keith writes a great story looking at the industry in general and SunTech specifically. It was my first collaboration with Keith and we had a great time, and really enjoyed our visit. Read on below.

Keith Bradsher's article is below. Or you can click HERE____________________________________Copywrite: New York TimesAugust 25, 2009China Racing Ahead of U.S. in the Drive to Go Solar

By KEITH BRADSHERWUXI, China — President Obama wants to make the United States “the world’s leading exporter of renewable energy,” but in his seven months in office, it is China that has stepped on the gas in an effort to become the dominant player in green energy — especially in solar power, and even in the United States.

Chinese companies have already played a leading role in pushing down the price of solar panels by almost half over the last year. Shi Zhengrong, the chief executive and founder of China’s biggest solar panel manufacturer, Suntech Power Holdings, said in an interview here that Suntech, to build market share, is selling solar panels on the American market for less than the cost of the materials, assembly and shipping.

Backed by lavish government support, the Chinese are preparing to build plants to assemble their products in the United States to bypass protectionist legislation. As Japanese automakers did decades ago, Chinese solar companies are encouraging their United States executives to join industry trade groups to tamp down anti-Chinese sentiment before it takes root.

The Obama administration is determined to help the American industry. The energy and Treasury departments announced this month that they would give $2.3 billion in tax credits to clean energy equipment manufacturers. But even in the solar industry, many worry that Western companies may have fragile prospects when competing with Chinese companies that have cheap loans, electricity and labor, paying recent college graduates in engineering $7,000 a year.

“I don’t see Europe or the United States becoming major producers of solar products — they’ll be consumers,” said Thomas M. Zarrella, the chief executive of GT Solar International, a company in Merrimack, N.H., that sells specialized factory equipment to solar panel makers around the world.

Since March, Chinese governments at the national, provincial and even local level have been competing with one another to offer solar companies ever more generous subsidies, including free land, and cash for research and development. State-owned banks are flooding the industry with loans at considerably lower interest rates than available in Europe or the United States.

Suntech, based here in Wuxi, is on track this year to pass Q-Cells of Germany, to become the world’s second-largest supplier of photovoltaic cells, which would put it behind only First Solar in Tempe, Ariz.

Hot on Suntech’s heels is a growing list of Chinese corporations backed by entrepreneurs, local governments and even the Chinese military, all seeking to capitalize on an industry deemed crucial by China’s top leadership.

Dr. Shi pointed out that other governments, including in the United States, also assist clean energy industries, including with factory construction incentives.

China’s commitment to solar energy is unlikely to make a difference soon to global warming. China’s energy consumption is growing faster than any other country’s, though the United States consumes more today. Beijing’s aim is to generate 20,000 megawatts of solar energy by 2020 — or less than half the capacity of coal-fired power plants that are built in China each year.

Solar energy remains far more expensive to generate than energy from coal, oil, natural gas or even wind. But in addition to heavy Chinese investment and low Chinese costs, the global economic downturn and a decline in European subsidies to buy panels have lowered prices.

The American economic stimulus plan requires any project receiving money to use steel and other construction materials, including solar panels, from countries that have signed the World Trade Organization’s agreement on free trade in government procurement. China has not.

In response to this, and to reduce shipping costs, Suntech plans to announce in the next month or two that it will build a solar panel assembly plant in the United States, said Steven Chan, its president for global sales and marketing.

“It’ll be to facilitate sales — ‘buy American’ and things like that,” Mr. Chan said, adding that the factory would have 75 to 150 workers and be located in Phoenix, or somewhere in Texas.

But 90 percent of the workers at the $30 million factory will be blue-collar laborers, welding together panels from solar wafers made in China, Dr. Shi said.

Yingli Solar, another large Chinese manufacturer, said on Thursday that it also had a “preliminary plan” to assemble panels in the United States.

Western rivals, meanwhile, are struggling. Q-Cells of Germany announced last week that it would lay off 500 of its 2,600 employees because of declining sales. It and two other German companies, Conergy and SolarWorld, are particularly indignant that German subsidies were the main source of demand for solar panels until recently.

“Politicians might ask whether this is still the right way to do this, German taxpayers paying for Asian products,” said Markus Wieser, a Q-Cells spokesman.

But organizing resistance to Chinese exports could be difficult, particularly as Chinese discounting makes green energy more affordable.

Even with Suntech acknowledging that it sells below the marginal cost of producing each additional solar panel — that is, the cost after administrative and development costs are subtracted — any antidumping case, in the United States, for example, would have to show that American companies were losing money as a result.

First Solar — the solar leader, in Tempe — using a different technology from many solar panel manufacturers, is actually profitable, while the new tax credits now becoming available may help other companies.

Even organizing a united American response to Chinese exports could be difficult. Suntech has encouraged executives at its United States operations to take the top posts at the two main American industry groups, partly to make sure that these groups do not rally opposition to imports, Dr. Shi said.

The efforts of Detroit automakers to win protection from Japanese competition in the 1980s were weakened by the presence of Honda in their main trade group; they expelled Honda in 1992.

Some analysts are less pessimistic about the prospects for solar panel manufacturers in the West. Joonki Song, a partner at Photon Consulting in Boston, said that while large Chinese solar panel manufacturers are gaining market share, smaller ones have been struggling.

Mr. Zarrella of GT Solar said that Western providers of factory equipment for solar panel manufacturers would remain competitive, and Dr. Shi said that German equipment providers “have made a lot of money, tons of money.”

The Chinese government is requiring that 80 percent of the equipment for China’s first municipal power plant to use solar energy, to be built in Dunhuang in northwestern China next year, be made in China.

Dr. Shi said his company would try to prevent similar rules in any future projects.

The reason is clear: almost 98 percent of Suntech’s production goes overseas.____________________________________

Thursday, October 01, 2009

I don't often say it much, but I'm very proud and excited about what China's managed to accomplish in the last 60 years; given that the first 30 years (1949-1979) were a complete regression.

I've lived here in the Middle Kingdom for almost a decade, and I hope to live here for several more; and during that time I've seen a lot of change. Much of it for the better. But let's not forget that while the country has developed rapidly in the last thirty years it is still a far cry away from what the Communist Party said it might be in the late 1940s when they were trying to build a power base. Back in the days General Mao and his team like to throw around terms like a multi-party system, and an independent judiciary; and today in 2009 we are still far from those ideals.

But yes, economic growth has lifted many people out of poverty to the point where some don't care much about politics; much to the pleasure of Party leaders. But there are huge gaps in the system and they are becoming more difficult to close as each day passes. The Party's control over the judiciary and the economy has led to so much rampant corruption that much of China's business and political environment operates like a mafia of sorts.

The birthday celebrations today in Beijing, and throughout the country, will offer a lot of military pomp and party propaganda, but that is not what I think about when I envision China and its future. I think about China's young entrepreneurial class; who have migrated to the big cities and started up their own businesses, and in stark contrast to that I fear for the the 700 million agricultural class that the dynamic growth as passed over; what will their futures hold? As an aside, it has always been the small entrepreneurs in this country that have made the business and working environment the stuff of miracles. And it should be the governments responsibility to maintain that fair business environment for years to come. Let's hope the party leaders understand their role.

Focusing back on economic growth, clearly there are mis-steps and not all if fair and transparent; but we're only one generation removed from Chairman Mao and his Cultural Revolution. I know that is no longer an excuse, but many of those in power at the moment have been strongly influenced by that period of history, and it still affects governance and accountability throughout the ranks. Developing from a third world country to a first world country takes a significant amount time, especially when leaders in power have had a largely patriotic educational foundation. Once the next few rounds of county level and provincial level government officials are bettered educated and a bit more "worldly", meaning simply thinking beyond their individual county fiefdoms, issues regarding personal freedoms and rule of law may indeed make headway; but I won't hold my breath.

If the government doesn't take steps to ease in more choice and personal freedoms, it is my opinion, that the Party will have missed a glorious opportunity to progress and develop in a way in which the global community can better respect and look up to. Much work needs to be done. No time can be wasted.

When I decided to move to China in 2001 I thought I was moving to a virtual backwater. A remote part of the world where I could learn photography on my own and document a country that I found fascinating and challenging. Just eight years later I'm amazed at how rewarding my personal and professional journey has been and how comfortable my home town of Shanghai has become. Progress for "most" is happening; but development and growth is a messy business and not for the faint of heart.

Even with all it's problems and headaches of running a country with 1.3 billion people; perhaps now is a good time to give a bit of praise to the government for actually keeping this country together from 1949 to 2009; as the country's journey to reach this point has been far from easy. Ruling with an iron fist or not, I can drive on a four-lane expressway from Shanghai to Kashgar and jump on a plane to just about any remote corner of the country I choose. Sure there are people, minority groups and counties that have been left behind, but with such brutal breakneck growth people are bound to be left out and be plenty pissed off about it.

Can China develop in a more sustainable manner? Include more people in the spoils and focus on cleaning up the environment? What about bringing about proper regulation and an independent rule of law? How about making a whole hearted effort to stop corruption, even throughout the inner party circles in Beijing?

So it is now that I raise my glass in a very guarded and unsure manner, here is looking at the next 60 years. Will we always have just "one party"? Will State Owned Enterprises still dictate policy and protectionism? Will the little person ever get a voice? Will the fist be removed from the puckered cheeks of the country's media? In 2069, will I still be blogging and living in Shanghai at the tender age of 91?

There are many challenges ahead. But there have been many successes behind us. I'm proud to live in China, and honored to have a chance to be documenting this country's rise. Peaceful or not, I'm here. Sustainable or not, I'll be trying to understand the who, the how and the why.

Onwards and upwards; and hopefully in a more equal and transparent way.

PS. Ai Weiwei, a Chinese painter, artist, architect and photographer recently wrote and essay for TIME magazine about China at 60yrs. Ai Weiwei's father was a famous poet who was exiled to Xinjiang and spent most of his life being harassed. Ai Weiwei's essay offers a much more personal perspective to China's development and growth. His essay is a very interesting read. You can find his essay HERE.

Tweet this Blog

Follow me on Twitter

Ryan Pyle of Facebook

About Me

My name is Ryan Pyle. I am a Canadian born documentary photographer. I have been living and working in China since 2001.
Formal Education: University of Toronto: International Politics.
Recent Editorial Clients: Wall Street Journal, TIME, Newsweek, New York Times, Fortune, Outside Magazine, Foreign Policy Magazine, The Sunday Times Magazine, Der Spiegel, Stern.